Method of influencing the flavor of tobacco



Patented Sept. 22, 1970 US. Cl. 131-144 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of influencing the smoke flavour or aroma of tobacco by adding to the unsmoked tobacco a flavouring material which occurs in the smoke of natural tobacco, in which the flavouring material is a 3,4-substituted maleimide in which the substituents are selected from the group comprising: hydrogen, methyl-, and ethyl-, the quantity of the material added being between and 500 p.p.m.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The application constitutes a division of the application of Werner R. G. Luttich, Ser. No. 619,058, filed Feb. 27, 1967, now Pat. 3,476,118 and entitled Tobacco.

The present invention relates to methods of influencing the flavour of tobacco smoke. The invention is more particularly applicable to natural tobaccos such as cigarette tobaccos, but can also be used in the case of synthetic tobaccos such as sheet made from tobacco waste products,,or from a carrier substance, preferably not producedfrom the tobacco plant, which is impregnated with selected material so as to have the flavour of a natural tobacco when smoked. In this case it is important the carrier substance should not burn to produce materials which would impair the smoking quality.

The German patent specification 1,131,580 makes the proposal of making synthetic or artificial tobacco fibres by selecting a suitable tobacco mixture, extracting it successively with water and alcohol, then producing a combined dry extract from the two extraction steps, and mixing the dry extract with a carrier substance such as cellulose or methyl-cellulose. The carrier substance is then made into fibres similar to those of natural tobacco.

In this way synthetic tobacco is produced which has aromaand flavour-producing materials from the natural tobacco so that it can be enjoyed by smokers. It is free from certain woody or cellulosic materials of natural tobacco.

However, this previous invention does not relate to the systematic adjustment of the smoking flavour of a natural tobacco by adding or removing substances, a topic which is dealt with by the US. Pat. 3,174,485. This patent describes the addition to cigarette filter materials, and cigarette paper in order to remove differences between various tobaccos.

There is also a further known proposal to improve the smoking flavour or aroma of tobaccos such as Virginia tobacco by the addition of synthetic substances influencing the aroma of the smoke so that the aroma is more pronounced than in the natural tobacco. However, this proposal was largely unsuccessful.

One object of the present invention is to provide a method for influencing the flavour or aroma of a tobacco so that the flavour remains natural, i.e., so that the smoke flavour resembles that of another tobacco, or at any rate does not resemble the smoke of a substance other than tobacco.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method of supplementing flavour-influencing substances already in a tobacco.

Yet a further object is to provide a method whereby more expensive components in a tobacco mixture may be decreased without the smoke flavour or aroma being impaired.

The present invention consists in a method of influencing the smoke flavour of a tobacco characterised by the step of adding to the unsmoked tobacco a flavouring compound which occurs in the smoke of natural tobacco, and is a 3,4-substituted maleimide of the following general formula in which R denotes hydrogen, methyl, or ethyl, and R denotes hydrogen, methyl, or ethyl.

The flavouring substances or materials which occur in natural tobacco can be determined and also produced from the tobacco by steam distillation. Apart from production from natural tobacco, flavouring materials for use in the invention can also be produced synthetically once their chemical composition has been established after the step of steam distillation.

The quantity of the materials added to the tobacco can vary within wide limits, for instance, between 2.5 and 750 p.p.m., or between 5 and 500 p.p.m., as may be required to influence the aroma or flavour of the tobacco in the required manner.

When tobacco is to be used as a source of the compound to be added, the isolation of the compound or compounds is preferably carried out by using steam distillation. The substances are then separated from the distillate. Since such known methods do not form part of the present invention they are not described. For the substances coming within the scope of the claims of the present specification it has generally been found that synthetic preparation or separation can readily be carried out by methods described in the literature. See, for example, I. H. Golden et al., J. Chem. Soc. 1958, 1732-37; CA. 52, 1363.4.

What I claim is:

1. A method of influencing the smoke flavour of tobacco consisting of adding between 2.5 and 750 p.p.m. to tobacco of a maleimide of the following general formula:

in which R denotes hydrogen, methyl or ethyl and R denotes hydrogen, methyl or ethyl.

2. The method of influencing the smoke flavor of to bacco which comprises isolating a maleimide of the following general formula:

substance is added in a quantity equal to 2.5 and 750 15 p.p.m.

4 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,325,060 12/1919 Toms 131-144 X 3,316,919 5/1967 Green et al 131-143 3,424,171 1/1969 Rooker 131143 FOREIGN PATENTS 832,991 4/1960 Great Britain.

0 MELVIN D. REIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 13117 

